Vol.:(0123456789) American Journal of Dance Therapy (2019) 41:25–38 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-019-09292-9 1 3 Abstracts from the 2018 Research and Thesis Poster Session of the 53rd Annual American Dance Therapy Association Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah Jennifer Frank Tantia 1  · Cecilia Fontanesi 2 Published online: 7 May 2019 © American Dance Therapy Association 2019 Abstract The Research and Practice Committee of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) has sponsored the research poster session at each annual conference for the past 23 years. The studies represented in the following abstracts were presented at the 2018 Research and Thesis Poster Session of the 53rd Annual ADTA conference in Salt Lake City, Utah and feature a wide range of scholarly works in current dance/ movement therapy research. The following sixteen studies have been selected for their quality and contributions to dance/movement therapy literature. Keywords Dance/movement therapy research · Student abstracts · Conference proceedings · Graduate theses · New research Nonverbal Aspects of Early Childhood Development, the Caregiver/ Infant Relationship, and the Therapist/Client Relationship: Implications for Early Intervention Dance/Movement Therapy Bomberg, L. The purpose of this thesis was to explore how early human experience with a caregiver underlies and contributes to the therapeutic process between dance/move- ment therapists and their clients. It critically reviews relevant literature on aspects of nonverbal interaction, early movement, and psychosocial development, the car- egiver/infant relationship, and the therapist/client relationship. Interested in the tar- geted realm where these four bodies merge, ultimately it addresses implications for the potential implementation of early intervention dance/movement therapy (DMT) to promote child development and attachment in healthy caregiver/infant dyads. * Jennifer Frank Tantia jftantia@gmail.com 1 American Dance Therapy Association, Columbia, MD, USA 2 Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA